The World the Missionaries Made

Culture,
Picture by early British Baptist missionary Alice Seeley Harris, who used her photos to expose abuses in the colonies. Her work helped end the bloody rule of King Leopold in the Belgium Congo in 1908. Picture from CT.
Picture by early British Baptist missionary Alice Seeley Harris, who used her photos to expose abuses in the colonies. Her work helped end the bloody rule of King Leopold in the Belgium Congo in 1908. Picture from CT.

In their January/February 2014 issue, Christianity Today reported the research findings of Robert D. Woodberry in an article entitled “The World the Missionaries Made.” Woodberry’s findings suggest that Protestant conversional missionaries who operated independently of colonial powers laid the foundations for the development of healthy societies and democracy in many parts of the developing world. These findings are counter to common stereotypes of missionaries as culturally imperialist and destructive. He also notes that this was a largely unintended consequence of their work, a sign of God’s greater purposes being worked out through devoted but imperfect people.

The full report of Woodberry’s research was published in the prestigious American Political Science Review as The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy.